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Anti-violence song inspires hope against hate

Indigenous band Digging Roots’ latest single AK-47 is without a doubt one of those very special songs that’s more than just music.
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Digging Roots is a Canadian musical group

Indigenous band Digging Roots’ latest single AK-47 is without a doubt one of those very special songs that’s more than just music. It is more than just a beat and more than just lyrics as intelligent as they are.

AK-47 has a message the world has heard many times in different forms, yet needs to hear again: people need to stop violating each other, and the hatred, violence and shootings need to end.

The message of the song isn’t new but all it needs is exposure to become a defining moment where people can become a little less cynical and embrace the band’s refusal to give up on love and peace; not unlike K’naan’s Waving Flag of so many years ago.

Digging Roots takes its song back to the ‘60s with a heavy dose of psychedelic pop—back to a time when love and peace and acceptance were waging a major war on hate, violence and oppression.

Audacious. What makes AK-47 bravely stand on its own is the idea of perusing love with the same fervor people give to hate; powerfully, indefinitely, sometimes even illogically.

The song references those serving in the military still fighting for what is good and vulnerable in this world, it references those whose circumstances have led them down a darker path and could be brought back with just a little forgiveness. The song talks about missing daughters, probably alluding to missing First Nations women across Canada but also invoking thoughts of the captured Nigerian girls which led to the Bring Back Our Girls movement that caught the attention of the world in 2014.

The band’s latest album, For The Lights, on which AK-47 is the first track, contains a myriad of other exemplary songs but all pale in comparison to AK-47. While listening to the album, no matter how hard I tried to take in all the songs I either founds myself wanting to skip back to AK-47, actually skipping back to it or playing the lyrics in my head instead of listening to the ones of the next song.